Following the United States Supreme Court's historic stamp of approval for gay marriage, making it constitutionally legal across the United States last month, Facebook rolled out a fun little feature that applies a rainbow-colored filter to Facebook profile pictures in celebration of same-sex rights. In Taiwan, users of the popular social media platform could see theirs friends using the new colorful profile photos.

Japan's Kyodo News reported last week that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will deliver his speech on the 70th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War not on Aug. 15, but one day earlier, and won't apologize for past Japanese colonization and aggression. The Japanese Empire started the Pacific War, which was officially declared as the Great East Asian War, though after the war it was popularly called the Second World War.

From the stripes and crosses of the Union Jack to the simple design of the French Tricolore, national flags flying in courthouses, classrooms and fire stations typically hold symbolic significance for a nation

Greece has voted "no" in the referendum over the eurozone bailout package that entailed continued austerity measures that were harsher than the Greek government could accept. That news brought the financial system in Europe, and the world, to the reality that once again countries are on the brink of the unknown, with investors, businesspeople and politicians all holding their breath over the magnitude of the issues at stake.

More than one in 10 ninth-graders will leave junior high school without being awarded a diploma this summer as a result of revised graduation regulations. The number is embarrassingly high, but it really tells us something about the education system in this country.

There are some things that China -- and probably most of its people -- may not or refuse to understand, such as democracy and freedom.
The other day, pro-democracy Hong Kong student leader Joshua Wong received a hostile message on his Facebook page from a mainland Chinese Internet user.

Four days after being re-elected president of the International Federation of Association Football, Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, 79, announced Tuesday in Zurich he was leaving his post in a "wise move" he should have done days, weeks, months, even years before now.

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus is causing alarm in neighboring South Korea and China. As of Sunday, 15 cases of the severe form of SARS have been diagnosed in South Korea, including a man who went to mainland China via Hong Kong, defying health authorities' border control efforts and subsequently leading to dozens of others needing to be quarantined.

Lee Kuan Yew, founder of Singapore, died on Monday at the age of 91. He was well remembered by world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama, who called him "a true giant of history." Lee was described by many international media outlets as a "benevolent dictator" who transformed a small breakaway city-state at the southernmost tip of Malay Peninsula into a global financial hub.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid a visit with his mother Yoko to the grave of Nobusuke Kishi at Fuji Cemetery at Oyama in Shizuoka on Jan. 11. Yoko Abe is the only daughter of Kishi, the prime minister from 1957 to 1960 whose death wish was to amend Japan's pacifist constitution, which General Douglas A. MacArthur imposed on postwar Japan.